Awards and Honours

Military Medal (Commonwealth of Australia Gazette No.75, 17 June 1919). The citation says: "This man was a Company runner. During the operation near Rainecourt (east of Villers-Bretonneux) on the afternoon of 9th August 1918 he repeatedly carried messages under very heavy machine gun and rifle fire. He went twice back to Battalion Headquarters and at least 800 yards of this journey was under very heavy machine gun fire and rifle fire, showing bravery at a critical period."

Notes

George McInnes was the older brother of Charles McInnes. He was named after the Presbyterian minister for the Queanbeyan district, Rev. George Lockhart Nairn (1875-1880). McInnes was a well-known shearer in the Canberra district but had also served an apprenticeship with McPherson and Hannaford as a coachsmith. He enlisted in February 1916 in Sydney and served with the 18th Battalion in France from October 1916. In November he was hospitalised with trench feet, returning to his unit in May 1917. He was hospitalised in October 1917 again with trench feet and was awarded the Military Medal for his actions as a Company runner on 9 August 1918 at Rainecourt. McInnes fought at Mont St. Quentin on 31 August 1918 and in the assault on the Beaurevoir Line in October. In March 1919 he was granted leave to attend a motor mechanics course in London. McInnes returned to Australia in July 1919 and was discharged on 19 August 1919. In 1920 he leased soldier settler Block 10B at Tuggeranong, near Pine Island, but the proliferation of noxious weeds (particularly saffron thistle) on the land saw him walk off the block in 1924. McInnes never married and lived in Queanbeyan after the war. He died on 23 December 1959 in hospital in Sydney, a few days short of his 83rd birthday.